


Only a day old (but I know what love is)

by pinkmuffinwithsprinkles



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bruce is awkward, Carol is heartbroken, F/F, M/M, Main Carol/Val, Thor is pure, Val is drunk, kinda a mess, maria/carol only in flashbacks, might add more characters, slow burn sort of, they're all very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-09-27 22:43:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20415502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkmuffinwithsprinkles/pseuds/pinkmuffinwithsprinkles
Summary: Carol leaves behind her old life in Louisiana to go to college. There she finds new friends in the form of a helpful Bruce Banner, an overwhelmingly optimistic Thor and his brother Loki, who she doesn't quite know how to feel about. And maybe her roommate - if she was ever actually home.title: Worms by The Japanese House





	1. A new Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> idrk yet how this is gonna turn out but felt inspired today :) Carol is a gay mess truly lmao  
hope yall like this if you do leave a comment or something or  
hmu on tumblr: @drummingsound

The leather of the steering wheel was almost uncomfortably warm in Carol's hand. With the other, she was wiping away the sweat on her forehead. On this last day of August, the sun had decided to gift the people of the Southwest with another blazing summer day.

As Carol was driving down the bumpy road in her old used car without air conditioning, she decided maybe she should’ve picked a college in a different state, definitely further north. Oregon maybe. Or Maine. It was probably raining right now in Maine. She’d been driving in this part of the country for less than a day but she’d already forgotten what fresh rain or her face or a cool breeze in her hair felt like.

She had to admit that it wasn’t much cooler in Louisiana where she’d started her journey last night, at least it rained there more than once every two months, and everyone got a chance to cool down.

Carol raised her hand another time, now though to push up her aviator glasses since they had been slowly sliding down her sweaty nose for the past ten minutes since she had last done this. Deciding she had enough she reached down and started rolling down her windows. Manually of course since her car truly was a piece of crap.

Immediately she was hit with a gush of wind in her face and the roaring sound of the air breaking at her window drowned out all the music playing from the only slightly new thing in her car – her radio. Even when Carol couldn’t afford more than a rusty metal box on wheels she’d always make sure she could listen to some quality music.

This particular radio had been a going-away-gift.

_“Hold on”, Maria had yelled as Carol already had her hand on the door handle of the car ready to turn her back on the life she’d been living for the past two years. _ _She stopped dead in her tracks but couldn’t bring herself to turn around yet._

_"I have something for you”, Carol could hear Maria's short breaths behind her. The other woman must've been running from the house trying to reach her. _

_“I don’t want-“, she had attempted to say as she had turned to face her but Maria had cut her off. “Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t want anything from me right now, but please, Carol, let me do this one thing for you.” _

_“You could’ve…”, but this time Carol had been the one cutting herself off. This wasn’t the time for accusations or words of regret. It had all been said and done. _

_Defiantly she had stretched out her hand and Maria had put a small rectangular, but surprisingly heavy package forward. As she had been giving it to Carol their hands touched, and they lingered for a second. _

_Maria had opened her mouth as if to say something, but before she could, Carol had grabbed the present and gotten into the car, hoping that she hadn’t seen the tears that were threatening to spill out of her eyes. And before Maria could have even risen her hand to wave goodbye Carol had sped off, throwing the present mindlessly onto the passenger’s seat. _

_Only hours later when she was holding at a gas station did Carol unwrap it. Carefully she pulled out an (almost) brand new car radio and she knew it must've been the one Maria and she had bought only a couple of months prior when Maria had purchased a new truck._

_ For a moment she considered putting it into her trunk and forgetting about it forever, but then Carol glanced at the empty slot in the center console and 10 minutes and a bit of cursing later the radio was built in. _

_When she turned it on Maria’s favorite song started playing and she asked herself if there was some god or fate or whatever that thought it was funny to watch her suffer._

The wind in Carol’s face had been a blessing and a curse for the last half hour and when she pulled into a gas station and pulled the key out of the ignition she felt like she’d just been picked up by a tornado thrown around a bit just to be spit out again. But at least she hadn’t died from a heat stroke so she couldn’t be less bothered by the numerous knots that had probably formed in her blonde locks.

After she had spent at least fifteen minutes in front of the fridge at the gas station and the attendant had already started to give her some weirded-out looks she had picked up some Mountain Dew and Cheetos which she knew Maria would’ve made fun of her for, maybe calling her “Kyle” or a gamer dude-bro, she was driving down the seemingly endless freeway down again.

\--

By midday, Carol finally pulled up in front of the Sakaar University Sophomore dorms. She went to the front office to get her keys and the minutes later she was standing in her dorm room a big box under one arm and her air force duffel bag in the other.

Her roommate must’ve already moved in yesterday since the right side of the small room was already, although sparsely, decorated and no boxes were laying around. She had a specific aesthetic going on. There was a Led Zeppelin poster on the wall and black sheets on her back. A, hopefully, fake sword was hung up above the bed and she had an impressive collection of Docs that were laying in a big pile on the floor at the foot of her bed.

Carol chuckled. Someone wanted to seem tough.

“Hello?” she called out. Maybe the other girl was in the adjacent bathroom (one of the main reasons Carol had picked this dorm). “I’m your new roommate. Are you home?”

She waited for a second but when no one replied she put down her stuff on the bare bed and carefully approached the bathroom. She opened the door slowly ever so ready to cover her eyes quickly in case something compromising was awaiting her inside. Carol quickly noticed though that it was completely empty.

“Huh”, she muttered. The girl must’ve not known that Carol was arriving today. Maybe she’d show up later.

She returned to her car and as she started getting the five boxes of stuff, she owned out she heard someone come up behind her.

“Hey”, she heard. Carol turned around. In front of her was a guy, about her height with a good summer’s tan and curly dark hair that already showed some gray streaks when the light hit it. His smile seemed genuine Carol decided and relaxed her shoulder’s which she hadn’t even noticed had tensed up at the foreign voice. “Are you new here?”

“Hey”, Carol said stretching out her hand. He took it his smile widening at her firm grip. His hands were very warm she noticed. Must have been the heat, “yeah, I am. Just arrived about half an hour ago actually.”

“Nice! Welcome to Sakaar then! I’m, uh, Bruce I’m a TA, working on my BioChem masters, well, trying”, he said. He had pulled his hand away and stuffed it into the pockets of his jeans. With the other, he was gesturing incoherently as he was talking. “You must be a transfer student then, right?”

Carol had crossed her arms but there was a small smile on her lips. She liked this guy. Maybe it was his slightly awkward vibes, maybe it was that Carol was pretty sure he wasn’t trying to hit on her, she couldn’t quite say why but she liked Bruce.

“I am. I was with the Air Force before. Stationed in Louisiana. Starting a new life, I guess.” Saying those words; Carol wasn’t used to this yet. It hadn’t ever been her plan to start a new life (again), but here she was and at the thought of what she had left behind, her throat closed. She quickly looked down and bit her tongue. It was something that she had read in a book once when she was still a child. The girl in the book always bit her tongue as well to suppress the urge to cry. She had adapted it immediately.

Bruce probably having noticed that this was sort of a touchy topic for her and to her great relief just nodded in acknowledgment and moved on.

“You need help with that he asked?”, gesturing toward the boxes that Carol had stacked by her car. “I could help you; you’d be done way faster. And, uh, you know, maybe when we're done you’ll at least have one friend here. I mean for now. If you want. To be friends I mean.”

By the end of his little monologue, Bruce seemed to almost be panicking and Carol could be wrong, but he may have been blushing in embarrassment. She chuckled.

“I’d love to”, she said with a wide grin.

Her almost emotional outburst from earlier was all but forgotten by Bruce’s amicable awkwardness which she found to be very endearing. He was right, too. She could use a friend here if she wanted to go through with this whole ‘Starting a new life’ thing.

At hearing her positive reply Bruce started smiling again soon and immediately moved to pick up three boxes at once.

_Impressive_, Carol thought. She was pretty sure those were her books and shoe boxes. The lanky guy was stronger than he looked.

After one trip up the stairs and down again Carol pulled the last item from her car that was still missing in her new home.

“You play good?”, Bruce asked her upon seeing her guitar case.

He hadn’t even broken a sweat carrying her stuff up and even though it was almost sundown it hadn’t gotten any cooler. Carol would love to go to the gym with him at some point to see how fit he really was. She herself wasn’t untrained either, her abs were one of her greatest points of pride, but still, she was practically dripping at this point. Maybe he was just used to the climate.

She tightened her grip on the black case in her right hand, afraid it might slip. “I guess, I’m alright. Nothing special. I’ve never been in a band or anything. Do you?”

“Yes, well, not guitar, I mean. I’m a piano man myself.”

On the way up to her room they talked some more and by the time they had reached her door they had noticed they both had a very similar taste in music and also food.

“Wendy’s is just far superior to McDonald's and Burger King. Who else has something like the Four for Four? Nobody that’s right”, Carol was exclaiming. This was a topic she was both very passionate and excited about.

“I agree one hundred percent. Also, Frosties are just better than McSundaes, I mean, you just get so much more for the same price.” Bruce was nodding and illustrating the size difference between the two desserts with his hands.

Carol laughed as she was unlocking her door. She peered inside and noticed that her roommate still hadn’t returned from wherever she had been since before Carol had arrived.

“This is me.”, she said. “Thank you very much for your help, it was very much appreciated.”

Bruce smiled and stretched out his hand. As Carol took it he said, “Yeah, of course, no problem. See you around, maybe?”

“Sure.” Carol let go of his extra warm hand and started to turn to walk inside and close the door, but before she could Bruce cleared his throat. She looked back at him the question marks practically visible in her eyes.

“Uh, well, I don’t know, but I thought you might… Do you want my number? Maybe we can hang out again some time?” Bruce was scratching his head and grinning at her. A small blush was creeping up his cheeks.

“Sure, but,” Carol laughed. “Dude, I’m totally gay, you do realize that, right?”

As she said it the man turned into a full-on tomato. “Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that! Oh, my god, sorry this is so awkward. I actually have a boyfriend. I’m sorry I’m not usually like this, I’m just so bad at meeting new people and – “

But before he could go on with his babbling Carol cut him off and gave him a good slap on the shoulder all while laughing. “It’s all good. Here give me your phone I’ll send myself a text.”

He did what she asked completely defeated.

“Here. Have a good night, Bruce”, she gave him his phone and turned to leave this time for real.

Before she could close her door, she heard a weak, “Yeah, you, too, Carol.”

\--

An hour later she had everything unpacked and sort of set up. She hadn’t ever realized how little stuff she owned that was actually hers until she had to pack, haul it across the country and unpack it all again.

Her three pairs of shoes were neatly tucked underneath her closet, which was filled with the one box of clothes she had brought. She had already pinned up her Nine Inch Nails poster, which had followed her from her childhood bedroom to base, to – she looked away. Not this time. Not now. Maybe she should’ve left it in Louisiana. But Carol knew she could’ve never done that, just like she couldn’t bring herself to throw away the radio.

Her side of the room was the opposite of the other side when it came to cleanliness. Her urge to always make her bed perfectly was still a left-over from Carol’s Air Force time and she wasn’t sure she would be able to ever quite get rid of it.

After another hour where she had attempted to look at her syllabus online and maybe do some pre-work (this had lasted about five minutes and then she trailed off watching YouTube Commentary videos), she felt her stomach rumbling. Just as she was done ordering some pizza, she got a notification.

**Bruce** 19:21

Hey, this is Bruce Banner from earlier! Sorry, again. I hope I did not offend you.

She smiled and quickly typed a reply.

**Me** 19:22

like i said no problem my guy

After her pizza had arrived, she pulled up a movie on Netflix and settled in on her bed. As she was all done and getting ready to go to bed, she got another message.

**Bruce** 22:47

I am glad!

Carol put her phone away and turned off all the lights. In the dark, she lied with her eyes open wide. She had at least one friend now. It meant that she wouldn’t be all alone in this new place which was so different from home. She just hoped she wouldn’t screw it all up. This was her chance she couldn’t do that. Not again.

Later when she had almost drifted off to sleep, she could’ve sworn she heard someone open the door and stumble in, but when she woke up in the morning nobody was there. The only indication someone had been there at all was the unmade bed and the empty bottle of liquor Carol could see poking out from under the bed, where someone had obviously tried to hide it.


	2. Someone New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol really wants to know who her roommate is. Thor is being a jock. Bruce just wants to drink his coffee in peace. Who knows where Valkyrie is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope yall like this :,) i did my best i think 
> 
> title is Someone New by Hozier

A week had gone by. Classes had started two days ago, and Carol had been running from building to building trying to keep on time. The sun had been ruthless on her and she had gotten sunburnt on her nose, which Bruce, who had finally warmed up to her, was making fun of every chance he could get.

Carol still hadn’t met her roommate, tough once she was in the shower as Carol woke up. When she had returned from breakfast though, the other girl was gone.

“My boyfriend would firmly believe she’s a ghost and that your dorm is haunted. But he’s also ridiculous so,” Bruce said when Carol was telling him about her predicament.

They were having lunch inside the cafeteria and as she watched the man think over his healthy salad option (she was having the chicken nuggets) she asked herself if the real ghost was Bruce’s mysterious boyfriend whom she hadn’t met nor seen a picture of.

“Maybe”, Bruce continued finally just as Carol’s conspiracy theories had started to get out of hand. It was very improbable after all, that Mystery Boyfriend was an alien god whose identity had to be hidden. “Maybe she’s just really busy and isn’t doing it on purpose.” He shrugged.

“That’s your final theory?” She threw a French fry at him. “Bruce, that’s so boring! I thought you were supposed to be a genius?”

“Hey!” he yelped raising his arms to deflect the artillery assault. “Sometimes the simplest explanation is probably right. Have you never heard of Ockham’s razor?”

She grumbled defiantly at his response and pouted. He was very likely correct. After all, what could a college student in the middle of nowhere be up to which was more intense than studying? But still, Carol couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off here.

\--

Later when she arrived, almost late, to her first physics lecture she noticed that in the packed room the only free seat left was beside a big, long-haired blonde guy. Quickly she made her way over.

“Hey, sorry, may I sit here?” she as aggressively as she could without sounding impolite. She looked over her shoulder and saw the professor walk in. She was the only idiot still standing. Suddenly the temperature in the room seemed to rise.

When she looked back at the strange guy, he was looking at her unbothered. “No”, he said.

Her mouth fell open. Maybe Carol’s brain was playing a trick on her, but she could swear she saw a little smile play around his lips.

_Fuck you_, she thought. She wouldn’t be pushed around by some hunk and so she sat down.

As soon as she had done it the guy started laughing very loudly, causing everyone to turn around. He pointed down on her an amazed look in his eyes.

“I like this one!” he announced to the whole class in a booming voice. Everyone rolled their eyes and turned back to the front of the class.

Even the professor had been staring at them but when he noticed that the attention had been returned to him he cleared his throat, “Anyway, today we’ll be discussing the syllabus. If you could all turn to page…”

“What the fuck, man,” Carol whisper yelled, glaring at the guy who was beaming down at her. “What’s your issue?”

“I have no issue.” He was talking way too loudly. “I was just messing with you. Wanted to see your reaction, that’s all.”

He continued to smile brightly at Carol as if she’d just given him a lollipop.

“Whatever”, she huffed, decided to ignore the weird man and start taking some notes.

This lasted for about two minutes before she felt a finger tap on her arm. Slowly she turned to face him, eyebrows raised.

“I’m Thor, by the way,” At least he was attempting to whisper now. “I don’t understand anything he’s talking about.” He nodded towards the professor who was going on about their second topic of the semester, which would be Induction. “Do you?”

“A little,” she said. A basic physics class had been mandatory at the academy. “But I think that’s kinda the point. We’ll learn all about it once it comes up.”

His eyes went wide in enlightenment. “Oh, yeah, you’re totally right!”

Hoping it would shut him up, Carol tried to act as if she was intensely listening to the lecture. It did. For a bit. Then a small wrapped-up paper hit her notebook.

She spun around to glare at him. How old was he? Five? But he couldn’t care less. He was miming someone unraveling paper, excitedly. She sighed. Giving in was a bad idea; it would only encourage him. But at the same time… She found herself kind of liking his childish attitude. If Maria were here, she would have said that they were a lot more similar than Carol realized. The thought made her smile. What did she have to lose, anyway? She opened his note carefully as not to rip it.

Drawn on it was a small little man that could’ve been mistaken for Thor. If you squinted. And were standing five feet away. Artistic talent was most definitively not something he possessed. Next to the caricature was a speech bubble which read:

“I’ve told you my name, but you never did yours.” She noticed that the drawing appeared to be sad.

She turned the small piece of paper around and started scribbling as well. This went on for a while back and forth and by the end of class, they were both giggling like little kids. Turns out Thor was truly horrible at drawing and what she had perceived to be a dog had supposed to be a hammer. The smile the professor gave them on the way out was definitely not meant to be sympathetic. 

In front of the building, Carol was squinting at her schedule trying to figure out where to go next. Thor was staring at his phone. It looked comically small in his large hands. Carol didn’t think she had ever seen a man so muscular in her whole life. She wondered if he was a pro wrestler. Maybe Google would give her an answer later.

She was ripped from her thoughts when Thor grunted and looked up from his phone, eyebrows furrowed.

“You alright?”, she asked.

“Yeah, it’s just,” he looked at his phone once more and quickly typed something, “sorry, uh, last semester my boyfriend always picked me up after class, but I kind of forgot that we have pretty conflicting schedules this year.”

He looked like a puppy that had been left outside in the rain. Carol realized she felt sorry for him. One last look at her schedule told her that she was free for the rest of the day.

“I could give you a ride if you want”, she said holding up her dangling keys. His face instantly lit up.

“Would you? That’d be so awesome, Carol. I can’t even afford an uber right now.”

“Yeah, sure, no problem. Come on it’s a bit of a walk.”

\--

“Wow” was all Thor said when he laid eyes on her car. “It’s…”

“A piece of shit?”, she said laughing. It was. Truly. It was blue but for the left back door, which was bright red, indicating it had to have been in an accident before. They were scratches and dents all around the bumper area as well as faded out stickers, whose messages no one could decipher anymore. You couldn’t see it from the outside, but her rearview mirror was taped together roughly and there had been a dead mouse in the trunk when she had bought it. It was disgusting, but she simply couldn’t afford anything better right now.

“I was going to say a pile of crap, but alright,” Not a muscle in his face was moving, his mouth a straight line.

“Hey, watch it, big shot, or you’re going to have to walk home,” she replied mimicking his expression.

Immediately he dropped his act. “Oh, no, please it’s such a long walk, I will surely perish in the heat,” he was pleading.

Carol giggled. “Get in, silly, I’m just messing with you,” she slapped the roof of the car and unlocked it.

Thor started laughing like earlier again. So loud and yet deep you could feel your bones vibrate.

“You are very funny, Carol Danvers”, he said while getting in. He looked ridiculously crammed inside and she was close to feeling bad for him. Not close enough though.

“We’re almost even now,” she said and started driving.

“Almost?” She could hear a hint of fear in his voice.

\--

When she had returned to her dorm from dropping Thor off at his boyfriend’s apartment, as he had clarified on the way there, she checked her phone for any new messages. Two emails from her Calculus Professor (the first one was a link to the textbook they would need soon, the second was her realizing she had accidentally attached a link to a book that gave tips on how to spice up your sex life) and a new message from Bruce she would read later.

Talking in the car Thor and she had realized that they lived in the same building, her just one floor above him. Apparently, he spent most nights away though, because he thought his roommate to be extremely annoying.

“He’s always studying, even in the middle of the night with all the lights on. It makes me feel guilty,” he whined.

When Carol had told him, she hadn’t even met hers yet, he went quiet. She could feel him watching her from the side.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just,” he had shuffled in his seat. “there’s probably a good reason, that’s all.”

\--

A couple of hours later Carol was sitting on her bed, scrolling through her e-Mails, alone in her room, of course. She was pretty sure mystery roommate hadn’t been home at all today. Nothing had been moved or changed since she had left this morning and naturally, she hadn’t shown up while Carol was in.

Suddenly her phone started going off. She picked it up from where it was sitting on the sheets beside her and looked at it. It was exploding with incoming messages from an unknown number.

Eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion she read through them.

**Unknown Number** 18:37

HEY

HEY

HEY

GUESS WHO IT IS

Carol was becoming more and more confused. Only a handful of people had her number. Maria, Bruce, the Air Force of course but she doubted if some Airman First Class had stolen her number from her records, she’d be getting texts like these.

There was also her mom. The thought popped up in her head out of nowhere. She scoffed. Ridiculous.

Her phone dinged again.

**Unknown Number** 18:38

COME ON CAROL GUESS!!!!!!!!

She let out a big breath of air. Simply blocking the number would certainly make it stop. She could do that. But she didn't. Where would be the fun in that?

But just before she could type out a response, she got a message from Bruce, right beneath the forgotten one from earlier. Her phone was running hot tonight.

**BB Bruce** 14:12

Hey, I think I know how we can solve your roommate situation.

**BB Bruce** 18:38

Carol, I am so sorry! He just took my phone while I was showering!

The situation which was unfolding in front of her right now just felt unreal. What did he mean? How would he and Mr. Anonymous fit together? Then she got a new message from the Unknown Number. She was very close to throwing her whole phone out of the window and calling it a night.

**Unknown Number** 18:39

ITS THOR!!!!!!

She groaned in frustration. This was possibly the stupidest thing that had ever happened to her. Even more stupid than that one time in 9th grade when she had wanted to put a Valentine’s card in Emily Davis’ locker but had gotten hers mixed up with Adam Berkowitz’s, who had proceeded to make (very unwanted) advances on Carol all year.

Her phone went off again. Another text and she might make good on her thought from earlier. Then the crickets chirping outside could read her fucking texts.

**BB Bruce** 18:40

Would you like to meet up at McDonald's? I still want to talk about your roommate. Food will be on me, of course, as repayment.

Just then her stomach made an obscenely loud noise. How could she say no to free food? The crickets would have to wait another night.

\--

McDonald’s smelled the same everywhere. As soon as she walked in, she was greeted by a waft of that certain smell of boiling fat, cheap meat and old ice cream that had spilled somewhere no one could clean it up. It made her realize how many different places she had been to with different people and somehow McDonald’s had always been its same kind of shitty self.

Bruce and Thor were already sitting in one of the booths; Thor was slowly eating away at the mountain of food stacked in front of him and Bruce was seemingly only drinking coffee.

“Hey, Guys!”, Carol said sliding in next to Bruce.

“Hi,” Bruce replied giving her sort of an awkward half-hug.

“Carol!” Thor was beaming at her even through a mouthful of fries. “Have I surprised you?”

“You have indeed,” she said mockingly glancing towards the man next to her, a smile on her lips.

Bruce raised his hands defensively. “I didn’t mean to make a big secret, I just sort of forgot to mention his name. I’m sorry though this is a really weird way of introducing you guys.”

Thor was pouting. “How could you forget about me? Thor: your mighty boyfriend?”

“I did not forget about you,” Bruce reached over the table and grabbed Thor’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Thor was smiling again but even though Carol didn’t know the guy very well yet she could’ve sworn she saw some hurt lingering in his eyes.

“Good”, Bruce said pulling back again and sighed. “We didn’t know what you liked so we pretty much got one of everything,” he addressed Carol.

“That’s perfect.” She grabbed a burger before Thor could and started unwrapping it. “Thanks, Bruce.”

Bruce smiled, Thor continued chomping down on his fries and Carol enjoyed the quiet for a second. Things had happened so fast earlier that she hadn’t had time to reflect on what she had learned about her new friends.

Looking between them, she thought they fit well together in a sort of odd unmatching way. Bruce was a slim yet sturdy looking guy, who clearly had troubles socializing having spent to much time of his youth behind books. Thor was the complete opposite in that; big, loud and always, if intentionally or not, the center of attention of every room he entered.

Yet despite those external differences, Carol thought herself a decent judge of character and she was sure she could see the love in Bruce’s eyes whenever his boyfriend stuffed too many chicken nuggets in his mouth and Thor’s little smile when Bruce touched him in a tiny way.

Carol smiled. She liked them she decided and she had a feeling they could get into some serious shit together.

\--

Throughout the evening Carol discovered that the couple had met last year when Bruce was the TA in Thor’s Biology 101 class. They had become friends very quickly after Thor had stalked out Bruce’s Instagram and similarly bothered him as Carol earlier to the point where Bruce couldn’t say no to hanging out.

They had gotten together during Spring Break and even though Carol didn’t come to find out the specifics; from the way both were blushing slightly she figured some alcohol had to have been involved.

“So,” Carol said after she felt like she had successfully gone as far as she felt she could in questioning them without invading their privacy too much. “What is your idea concerning Mystery Girl?”

Even though she was addressing Bruce, she could see Thor shuffle in his seat just like earlier in her car. When she turned to look at him he suddenly got very interested in one of the empty dip packages.

_Weird_, she thought but decided to ignore it since Bruce who she had seen glance at the other side of the table as well was doing the same.

“Yeah,” he said. “About that.” He cleared his throat and raised his hand to push some stray curls out of his eyes. “I think you should just talk to your RA and ask them who Mystery Girl is. Problem solved.”

"Huh," was all Carol replied. Could it really be that easy? Why hadn' t she thought of this herself? But Bruce was the smartest out of all three of them, so it had to. Excitement rushed over her and she started smiling widely. She didn’t know what she would do with the information once she got it but at least it would be a start.

She watched Bruce raised his, by now third, cup of coffee to take a sip but stopped midway, because Thor, still looking intensely at the sauce container in his hands, mumbled something incoherently.

Both Bruce and Carol turned their heads towards him at the same time and said “What?” in unison.

“I said,” Thor spoke up, still not making eye contact, “that I think RAs are not allowed to give out information on the people living in their dorms. You know privacy laws and such.”

“Oh”, Carol said. That made a lot of sense. Disappointment rose in her stomach. She was so tired of this whole guessing game and here she was so close to the solution and yet so far away.

“Goddamnit!” Her outburst startled one of the workers at the counter. “Sorry.” She tried to smile apologetically while aggressively ripping a piece of wrapper into tiny shreds. The poor guy looked terrified.

Bruce didn't let what had been said get him down and instead tried a more reasonable approach. “How do you even know that?” he asked Thor.

“Yeah,” Carol chimed in, having calmed down after taking a sip from her soda. “And why would those laws even apply when you’re roommates? I mean, living together takes away any sense of privacy, right?”

Thor finally raised his eyes to meet Carol’s. “I know, because, well, I just know, okay? Trust me, I’ve tried, and they won’t give you any information no matter who about or how well you know them.”

Carol narrowed her eyes at Thor putting on her best threatening look. She took a chicken nugget and used it to point at him.

“You better be telling the truth, sunny boy, or else…” she trailed off and dramatically bit into it, ripping it in half. Carol chewed once or twice and swallowed it still almost whole all while not breaking eye contact. “…you’ll have to face the consequences.”

Thor gulped visibly. Carol couldn’t help but let a smirk slip through her façade. You didn’t survive a whole two years of academy life surrounded by assholes without learning to intimidate even the biggest of men.

“I am telling the truth, I swear.” A sly grin had replaced his frightened look though Carol was sure it wasn’t genuine.

“Fine,” she said and dropped the leftover chicken nugget into her mouth. “So, what am I gonna do now?”

They all went quiet for a moment thinking. Thor had lost that stupid grin again and was now staring into nothing. Nothing apparently was somewhere near Carol’s ear. Bruce was absently looking at his phone.

What _could_ she do? The girl knew her schedule or else she couldn’t have kept this up for more than a couple days. By now Carol was sure that she was doing this intentionally. The Why bothered her as well. They had never met before as far as Carol knew. She was also an excellent roommate always keeping her side tidy and never leaving hair in the shower. So why was Mystery Girl so keen on avoiding her?

If she knew Carol’s schedule (however she had gotten it) and Carol was unable to find out anything about her, she’d have to try another way. She would have to trick her.

\--

As she was tipping in the code to unlock the front door of her dorm Carol was smiling in excitement. She was almost giddy. She had a plan! She could so this and finally, find out who her roommate was.

What Bruce and she (Thor had gone quiet again for whatever reason) had come up with was that Carol would skip all her classes the next day and wait in their room for Mystery Girl to show up. She had to eventually.

Carol nearly tripped over a shoe someone had just left laying around as she was walking up the stairs. As she was walking up to her door, she got her key out. She wondered why she hadn’t thought about doing this earlier. It seemed so easy now that they had figured it out. Classic stake out tactic.

At her door, she fumbled to find the keyhole in the darkness of the hallway. Finally, the key slipped in and while turning it she thought about the face the girl would make when she realized Carol had beaten her at her own game.

But when the door swung open Carol was the one to come to this realization. She had never been a jumpy person. There wasn’t a lot that could make her afraid or shock her. But when she saw the strange woman laying on her roommate’s usually empty bed, she thought she might’ve had a heart attack.

The woman was around her age, maybe a little bit younger with light brown skin and long dark hair which was pulled back into an intricate braid. A cocky grin was on her lips and a bottle of presumably Whisky in her hand. If Carol had been sure that her heart had stopped earlier, it was now beating so fast and loud she thought the woman had to surely hear it.

Carol realized her mouth was wide open and she had been standing in the door frame completely motionless for far too long. She should say something, anything. But somehow her Brain had stopped working somewhere between her initial shock and now and before she could get it to awaken again the woman spoke up:

“Hey, fuckface. Heard you been looking for me,” She took a swig from the bottle in her hand without losing her self-assured grin. “I’m Valkyrie by the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to savethebees for talking about college with me even though i haven't used most of it yet lol  
my tumblr is still @drummingsound if anyone wants to check it out

**Author's Note:**

> idrk how colleges work lmao lets see how bad i fuck up
> 
> beta by @modern-dumbass on tumblr she's the releast


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